I was recently able to hear the new Kluster limited edition LP-only box set from the now-defunct Italian label Qbico, and it's really fantastic. The material is surprisingly varied, but always in line with their typical style (or what you'd think they sound like if you've never heard). I haven't listened to all of it yet but I can already say that it's much more interesting than their officially-released studio albums (which I have on the 1970-71 CD-set from the Water label), as great as that stuff is.
Kluster were the before-they-were-stars-supergroup of German electronic music, made up of Conrad Schnitzler (later known for his membership in Tangerine Dream, foundation of Eruption, and a string of celebrated solo albums), and Hans-Joachim Rödelius and Dieter Moebius who continued releasing classic early electronic albums as Cluster and later Harmonia. Famed Krautrock producer Conrad Plank engineered the records, and almost certainly had a hand in the instruments' treatments. The Kluster material is improvised musique concrète, using tapes, tubes, mixing boards, and very early synthesizers to affect and distort acoustic sounds into a swirling mass of dark humming noise. Usually very percussive, occasionally the recognizable tones of a cello, flute, organ, or piano will come through the mix, but only very briefly. Normally it's totally impossible to determine how the sounds were made. There are two basic modes: mellow and chaotic, and each track builds and fades between the two. Their first two albums each have silly-sounding spoken word over the music but the second sides and the third album are free of that burden, as is the material on the new box set, although there are occasional vocals.
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